Released in early access on 14 November 2025 on PC, Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault arrives as a confident, ambitious sequel that keeps the charm of the original while branching out in all the right ways. The most obvious change hits you straight away: the series has shifted from its cosy top-down pixel-art look to a more detailed 3D isometric style. It’s a bold move, but it really pays off. The world feels richer, the lighting adds atmosphere, and the dungeons in particular benefit from the extra sense of depth and space. It still looks like Moonlighter, just grown up a bit.
The familiar loop of shopkeeping by day and dungeon-delving by night is still very much the heart of the game. You wander the vaults after hours, collect loot, head home, and sell your finds for profit. But this time around it feels far more developed. Combat is more flexible and varied thanks to dungeon bonuses and perks that genuinely change how you approach each run. Depending on the bonuses you pick up, one night you might be darting around with a speedy, high-risk build, and the next you’re leaning into heavier, slower tactics. It gives the whole action side of the game a lot more personality and replayability.
Looting has also become a deeper part of the experience. A far larger number of items now carry “curses” that dictate how you stack your bag, how items interact with one another, or what you can carry alongside them. It makes the process of gathering supplies feel like a proper puzzle, and you end up thinking far more carefully about what you grab and what you leave behind. It’s a small change that makes a big difference.
Outside the dungeons, the game does a much better job of giving you things to do. There are more quests, more people to talk to, more upgrades, and more reasons to care about life in town beyond simply running your shop. That helps break up the routine, so it’s not just dungeon → sell → dungeon → sell. There’s enough side content to keep the pace varied and stop you slipping into autopilot.
The dungeons themselves are stronger this time, too. They’re longer, tougher, and offer more branching paths, which leads to proper exploration rather than a straight sprint from room to room. Enemies hit harder, layouts are more interesting, and the sense of discovery feels more deliberate. It makes each run feel worthwhile, not just a chore to restock your inventory.
Of course, it’s still early access, and you can feel that at times. A few mechanics aren’t fully fleshed out, some features are clearly marked for future updates, and there are occasional moments where repetition begins to creep in again. That’s the main reason I can’t call it flawless yet — the potential is definitely there, but it’s still growing into itself.
On the technical side, playing it on Steam Deck has been pleasantly smooth. Performance has been stable, controls feel natural, and the new 3D style looks great on the handheld screen. Considering it’s still under development, that stability is a reassuring sign of things to come.
Overall, Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault feels like the sequel fans hoped for — familiar but expanded, deeper without being bloated, and full of promise as updates roll out. As it stands right now, I’d give it a strong 8/10, with every chance of climbing higher as early access progresses.
Gareth Ellis - Author 